Sunday, June 09, 2013

It's November 28th, 2006 and Anderson is anchoring from Istanbul, Turkey. The second night of AC360's "When Faiths Collide" - their coverage of the Pope's Visit. If you missed out post of the first night of coverage, please click here.

ANNOUNCER:Across the country and around the world, this is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, "When Faiths Collide: The Pope in Turkey." Reporting from Istanbul, here's Anderson Cooper.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It sure was a remarkable day. Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Turkey, with the world watching. His first trip to a Muslim country has morphed into a much bigger diplomatic mission than it was supposed to be. Benedict began by offering an olive leaf.

COOPER: This visit is, for sure, a high-stakes balancing act for Pope Benedict. He's known for his blunt talk and willingness to face, head on, the divisions between faiths. As important as it may be for him to smooth relations with Muslims in this predominantly Muslim country, he also has some demands.

COOPER: Yes, Christians, by the way, make up less than half-a- percent of Turkey's 70 million people. Joining me now is Reza Aslan of USC's Center on Public Diplomacy and the author of the book "No God But God," also, CNN's faith and values correspondent, Delia Gallagher.

COOPER: Video of the pope arriving for a meeting earlier today in Ankara. You'll notice he was not using the Popemobile. He's traveling in an armored limousine, instead. He left the Popemobile back in Vatican City. Welcome back to this special edition of 360, live in Istanbul, Turkey. Our next story is frankly chilling. Turkish women living in the 21st Century but victimized by an ancient tradition. Take a look.

COOPER: Those figures on head scarves underscore the contradictions of modern Turkey. On the one hand, struggling to place itself in this modern world and on the other, comfortable with its heritage.

COOPER: Turkish people sharing their thoughts in a survey. Most say U.S. troops in Iraq are the biggest danger to world peace. Turkey shares part of its southern border with Iraq, an area with a high population of Kurds. Turks and Kurds, neighbors but tense neighbors. CNN's Tom Foreman maps it out for us.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Anderson. Here's our "Shot of the Day". It comes from Massachusetts, where it's machete versus gun. A store clerk in Holyoke decided to take matters into his own hands and fight back when a shoplifter threatened to shoot him.

Join us next week for the second hour of AC360 from November 28th with Anderson in Istanbul. Covered in that hour:

Coming up, we'll have more on "When Faiths Collide", the pope's visit to Turkey. We'll talk to CNN Vatican analysts about how Pope Benedict is doing reaching out to Muslims.
And we'll take you to the Netherlands, where soft drugs are legal, but burkas could soon not be. Why one of Europe's most liberal countries is taking that step.Stay tuned.